Assessing fitness to drive

As a health professional, you may be asked to carry out a medical assessment to check if someone is fit to drive.

There are many medical conditions that can affect a person's ability to drive safely. These include injuries, disabilities and medical treatments.

A medical assessment helps the Motor Vehicle Registry (MVR) decide what to do about a person's driver licence.

The MVR can either issue, renew, suspend, cancel or reinstate a licence.

Who qualifies as a health professional

The MVR can only accept completed medical assessments of fitness to drive by a person registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

This can include:

You must be suitably qualified to provide advice for their patients’ medical conditions.

In some cases, a patient might not be medically fit to drive.

You're legally required to report to the MVR if you believe a person you have examined is:

If you report without patient consent, you're protected by law against civil and criminal liability.

For more information, read the Motor Vehicle Act 1949.

Find out when a person may request a medical assessment.

You must conduct all assessments in line with the assessing fitness to drive guidelines on the Austroads website.

Following the assessment, you can record your findings using:

The assessment of fitness to drive must:

clearly identify the patient with their full name and date of birth as well as licence number if known
identify the medical condition(s) they were assessed for
confirm whether they meet the private or commercial medical standards
- if they are a commercial licence holder but don't meet commercial standards, you should advise whether they meet private standards
advise whether they should be subject to a periodic medical review period
- most of the standards in the AFTD guidelines recommend 1 to 2 years - if you're recommending a longer review period, provide additional advice to support why it's appropriate
- a review period should only be recommended where there is a genuine need for the patient to complete ongoing fitness to drive assessments
recommend any licence conditions that should be applied to the licence - read more about licence conditions
be dated, signed by, and clearly identify, the health professional completing the assessment.

The medical standards for private and commercial licence holders are available in the assessing fitness to drive guidelines on the Austroads website.